Browser Help

What's a plugin?

Plug-ins are small pieces of software that allow a web browser or other application to interpret files in a format that would otherwise be unreadable. For example, video and sound files normally require the browser to have some sort of plugin installed.

Plugins for applications like a word processor are also small pieces of software that allow you to manipulate an "object" within the application that is in the file format used by the browser plugin. Or they add an extra menu option to the applications menu bar that provides a utility that the application would otherwise not have. An example would be a plugin that allowed you to drag around a square object within a word processor that would appear as a movie when "played".

Install Tip
If you're installing browsers and plug-ins, install the browsers first. This ensures that plug-ins installed afterwards will be available to all browsers.